by ariskocrat on Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:58 pm
I disagree with the assertion that there is a duty to report secret diplomacy by someone who stands in the position of OriginalThor here, or Adman in the prior aforementioned case. In the Rules section of the site, in Rule 1 Re: Multiple Accounts, the rules state "If you suspect certain accounts belong to the same person, please report it following the instructions at the top of the Cheating & Abuse Reports forum." This is only a plea, not a requirement if you should happen upon knowledge of a "multi".
At issue here is Rule 2: No Secret Diplomacy. "Any form of diplomatic discussion between opponents must only be posted in the game chat in English or in a language that all opponents understand. No other methods of communication may be used to hold diplomatic discussions between opponents including, but not limited to, the forum, the wall, Live Chat, or the inbox." There is no duty to report any knowledge of secret diplomatic communications mentioned here. Not even the non-binding plea to report as in Rule 1. You would expect consistency in any mention of a duty to report alleged violation in the Rules section. Yet there is none.
In fact, I have come upon new users that had similar names in chat and in guide games that I suspected of being multis. Not only did I not report them, I warned them of their actions being violations and suggested if they wanted to continue doing so, they should at least make it less obvious. You may want to investigate my actions and open a C&A thread on me. I would do so if this affirmative duty to report was clarified, but I don't have any screenshots nor remember particular players. Does the duty to report require I go through all my guide games to check the game logs and chats? Please let me know.
A duty requiring someone to report alleged violations must mean that every person on this site is deputized to report all rules violations to C&A. Should I start looking for and posting reports to all violations that may be occurring for fear I will be reported otherwise? What is the time limit? Did Originalthor have to report it when he read the wall post, before he or any other player makes a turn, or only if he relied upon the information gleaned? Does he have a grace period by which to report this so that I don't have to fear some doofus will make a SD communication on my wall and I will be reported before I have a chance to see it or respond? Is the rule to make a decent effort or accommodation after realizing what occurred? Must I make a C&A report or just notify players via the game chat? If those players don't seem to be paying attention to game chat, do I have to notify them via PM or with a wall post? Does this discussion itself require a disclaimer be posted in the game chat itself prior to making the private communique?
Further, on the facts herein, OriginalThor makes no further message to Adman in the game chat at all. There is no mention of affirming anything that Adman said which other players may not be privy to. There is little we can say about OriginalThor's turns after the fact. Did he play based on Adman's foolish post or did he simply play the game the best he could.
An affirmative duty to report is something that should be avoided unless clearly stated in the rules and with a decent amount of clarification. If this has already been fleshed out in prior C&A reports, I apologize for burdening this thread with my musings. But, I would admonish the administrators for not updating the rules page to make these clarifications rather than place a duty on site users to find a forum thread on such a matter.
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